I'm built for speed not distance: Thorpe

Australia's triple world record holder Ian Thorpe is thinking about swimming shorter distances because he has put on weight since dominating last year's world championships.

"I've been saying it for a while, predicting I might be doing the shorter events, simply because of my size and how I'm built," the 200, 400 and 800 metres freestyle world record holder told reporters in Sydney.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep doing the distance events," said Thorpe, who won six gold medals in Fukuoka last year and was named swimmer of the meet.

"I'm now at 104.5 kilograms, up from 98 kg at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and my 100 kg racing weight at the world championships," said Thorpe before the Australian swimming team flew to Germany for a pre-Commonwealth Games training camp.

The 19-year-old is attempting to win a record seven gold medals at the Games which start next Thursday in Manchester, England.

"I found that I was bulking up during preparations for the world championships. I was just putting on muscle mass. I'm trying to monitor it to make sure it's not affecting my performances.

"Some training sets are actually quicker than in the past. At the moment I'm just going for it but I might have to look at swimming different events. I might switch to the 50s."

His comments appear to have put an end to speculation the triple Olympic gold medallist with the flipper-sized feet will challenge Australia's world and Olympic champion Grant Hackett in the 1,500 metres freestyle in the future.